This invention relates to a game wherein a tennis ball is connected to a fixed anchorage device via an elongated flexible cable. The anchorage device is placed on a pavement surface, after which the player strikes the ball with a conventional tennis racket to drive the ball away from a point above the anchorage device. Elasticity built into the cable enables the cable to exert a return force on the ball. The ball is pulled back toward the anchorage device. However, gravitational forces cause the ball to drop onto the pavement surface before the ball is able to reach the anchorage device. The ball bounces off the pavement surface so that when it reaches the vicinity of the anchorage device it is several inches above the pavement surface. The player can thus swing the tennis racket to again drive the tennis ball away from the anchorage device. The process is repeated as long as the player is able to control the flight of the ball.
The game can be used for competition purposes by having two or more players take turns at striking the tennis ball; the player accomplishing the greatest number of ball strike cycles can be considered the winner. The game can also function as a training device for enabling a player to learn successful techniques of striking a tennis ball useful in an actual game of tennis on a tennis court. The stroke used in the present game is similar to the ground strokes needed in an actual tennis game.
In some respects the game of this invention is similar to a game already known, wherein a small rubber ball is connected to a flat wooden paddle via a rubber band. That game is played by moving the paddle back and forth so that the ball alternately rebounds away from the paddle surface and returns back to the paddle surface due to the elastic force of the rubber band. However, in that game the ball never strikes the ground or pavement surface; instead the ball moves directly toward or directly away from the paddle surface. The present invention uses a ground mounted anchorage device that is not employed in the above-referenced paddle game.